Congratulations to Vincenzo Cantiello from Italy who won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest on their debut. We’d like to thank you all for following our coverage this year, it was great to be reporting live for the first time and we learned a lot. Next year we will be back with bigger and better coverage. If you have any questions about what it was like behind the scenes, ask on our Facebook or Twitter. The results were:

• 1st – Italy (159 pts)
• 2nd – Bulgaria (147 pts)
• 3rd – Armenia (146 pts)
• 4th – Malta (116 pts)
• 5th – Russia (96 pts)
• 6th – Ukraine (74 pts)
• 7th – Belarus (71 pts)
• 8th – Netherlands (70 pts)
• 9th – Cyprus (69 pts)
• 10th – Serbia (61 pts)
• 11th – Georgia (54 pts)
• 12th – Slovenia (29 pts)
• 13th – Sweden (28 pts)
• 14th – Montenegro (24 pts)
• 15th – San Marino (21 pts)
• 16th – Croatia (13 pts)

It is the day we’ve all been waiting for – the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014 has arrived! In just a few hours we will find out who has won the trophy. Junioreurosong.net will now publish our reviews of the songs. We’ve asked two long-time JESC fans from the forum to contribute their opinions – the JESC fan jury will consist of Caroline from Norway and Luc Custers from the Netherlands. We also asked two Junior Eurovision experts, past singers themselves, Dalita Avanessian who represented Armenia in 2011 and Gaia Cauchi, the winner of last year. All the scores will be added together to find our winner of the year.

Armenia – Betty – People of the sun

Gaia – I love Betty she is really confident on stage and a very catchy song, goodluck – 6/10
Dalita – It’s a bright, happy, positive  song which has a nice idea for the video-clip. I wish good luck to Betty, the representative of my country Armenia. 9/10

Caroline – It is a cute and catchy song, lacking the little extra for me. Wish it was 100% Armenian her accent is a little awkward and it would suit the song better. 6/10
Luc – Lets get it out of the way: I don’t like this at all. I find it rather cheap and tacky. The music is really basic, the most simple dance beat you can think of. She also sounds out of breath during the whole song, like she is trying really hard to reach those notes. Simply not pleasant. 4.5/10

Public vote – 7 points
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We were also able to get an interview with Julia from the Netherlands after her press conference. Watch it below, it is done by me (Dara) and Isanne from escplus.

After her press conference, we were able to do an interview with Sophia from Cyprus (together with Adrian from escplus). Check it out below:

And finally, after all these rehearsal shenanigans, it all comes to a close with Belarus, ironically the first to perform on Saturday! Belarus is keeping the staging like it was at the National Final, which was a good decision. Nadezhda looks confident, hits every note and looks right down every camera that looks her way. The outfits are gorgeous as well! It will without a doubt be a great opener of the show!

Link to the video!

Malta’s first rehearsal was pretty much spot on, except a few camera angles she didn’t get yet. Well, those have been fixed, so everything is set for Saturday! Federica’s vocals are spot on, her dress is really pretty and the lighting and backdrop are matching. Still, when you watch it on the screens, something is still missing a bit… But by the time we’re writing this, dry ice has been added, and it’s an improvement indeed! We will have to see what happens on Saturday!

Link to the video!

Ula has just finished rehearsing for the second time and she sounds absolutely amazing! Not only that but they’ve kept a surprise for us: she’ll have a circle around her that starts shooting off pyrotechnics in the climax of the song, which looks fabulous! She wears a simple short white dress, which adds to the simplicity of the song. She also gets the cameras every time they’re close up to her, which is important! Let’s hope it all goes well!

Link to the video!

The girls have had their second rehearsal and it blew everyone in the hall away! The Peppermints have excellent vocals and good harmonies, and not only that, but they also have great stage presence together and give the cameras the right looks at the right time. The outfits are very standard, white tops with skirts in different colours for every singer. And then there’s the boots! Fabulous black boots for everyone!

Link to the video!

Josie just finished her different run throughs and the first thing we can say is: what a cute outfit! She’s wearing a short red dress that matches her perfectly! The dancing has improved a lot, but her own moves sometimes still come across as a bit awkward. She also has to connect more with the cameras, but that’s what these rehearsals are for! In any case, she looks and sounds good now. The backdrop is very active and fits Josie’s personality. Let’s hope for a strong dress rehearsal tomorrow!

Link to the video!

Maša Vujadinovic and Lejla Vulić, the two girls representing Montenegro, have had their second rehearsal and we can say it looks and sounds a lot better than their first one! They have improved on every level: voice, dancing and overall charisma. The backdrop still is a bit weak compared to what some of the other countries have, on the other hand. Still, Montenegro can be happy with the improvement we’ve seen with Maša and Lejla. They also get decent camerawork, but they should just try to connect more with it, so the viewers really do feel like they should be a kid for a day!

Link to the video!